Team debriefing in the COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative study of a hospital-wide clinical event debriefing program and a novel qualitative model to analyze debriefing content.

BACKGROUND: Healthcare workers faced unique challenges during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic which necessitated rapid adaptation. Clinical event debriefings (CEDs) are one tool that teams can use to reflect after events and identify opportunities for improving their performance and their processes. There are few reports of how teams have used CEDs in the COVID-19 pandemic. Our aim is to explore the issues discussed during COVID-19 CEDs and propose a framework model for qualitatively analyzing CEDs. METHODS: This was a descriptive, qualitative study of a hospital-wide CED program at a quaternary children's hospital between March and July 2020. CEDs were in-person, team-led, voluntary, scripted sessions using the Debriefing in Suspected COVID-19 to Encourage Reflection and Team Learning (DISCOVER-TooL). Debriefing content was qualitatively analyzed using constant comparative coding with an integrated deductive and inductive approach. A novel conceptual framework was proposed for understanding how debriefing content can be employed at various levels in a health system for learning and improvement. RESULTS: Thirty-one debriefings were performed and analyzed. Debriefings had a median of 7 debriefing participants, lasted a median of 10 min, and were associated with multiple systems-based process improvements. Fourteen themes and 25 subthemes were identified and categorized into a novel Input-Mediator-Output-Input Debriefing (IMOID) model. The most common themes included communication, coordination, situational awareness, team member roles, and clinical standards. CONCLUSIONS: Teams identified diverse issues in their debriefing discussions related to areas of high performance and opportunities for improvement in their care of COVID-19 patients. This model may help healthcare systems to understand how CED tools can be used to accelerate organizational learning to promote safety and improve outcomes in changing clinical environments.

Interprofessional clinical event debriefing-does it make a difference? Attitudes of emergency department care providers to INFO clinical event debriefings.

BACKGROUND: Debriefing is increasingly used in clinical environments. Surveys indicate staff support for debriefing clinical events, but little is known about the specific effects of debriefing on healthcare workers in the workplace. INFO (Immediate, Not for personal assessment, Fast facilitated feedback, and Opportunity to support and ask questions) is a charge nurse facilitated clinical event debriefing program implemented in 2016 and currently used in five Emergency Departments (ED) in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. There have been more than 840 documented INFO debriefings. METHODS: Thirty interprofessional ED healthcare workers were recruited through posters and email to take part in voluntary one-on-one interviews using a standardized question script that asked participants about their experience with INFO debriefing assessments. Specifically, participants were asked to provide demographic information, give feedback about their involvement in INFO clinical debriefings, impact of debriefings on their clinical practice, stress levels and wellbeing. Interviews were transcribed and analysed using NVivo software. RESULTS: Forty-five healthcare workers replied to the initial recruitment methods with fifteen not responding to follow-up communication. Overall, staff satisfaction with INFO debriefing was highly rated. A qualitative thematic analysis to saturation approach was used to analyse the data. Five main themes were identified: 1.Effect of debriefing on clinical practice and patient care. 2. Psychological safety and teamwork. 3. Emotional acknowledgment after critical events. 4. Managing work stress in the ED. 5. Barriers to debriefing. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, debriefing in the ED helped interprofessional healthcare workers manage stress, provide improved patient care and teamwork while acknowledging emotions. This study specifically involved INFO, however, there are similarities that make our findings applicable to other clinical event debriefing programs. We believe this study provides further evidence supporting debriefing in clinical care areas.

RéSUMé: CONTEXTE: Le débriefing est de plus en plus utilisé dans les environnements cliniques. Les enquêtes indiquent que le personnel est favorable au débriefing des événements cliniques, mais on sait peu de choses sur les effets spécifiques du débriefing sur les travailleurs de la santé sur le lieu de travail. INFO (Immediate, Not for personal assessment, Fast facilitated feedback, and Opportunity to support and ask questions) est un programme de débriefing d'événements cliniques animé par l'infirmière en chef, mis en œuvre en 2016 et actuellement utilisé dans cinq services d'urgence (SU) à Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Il y a eu plus de 840 débriefings INFO documentés. MéTHODES: Trente travailleurs interprofessionnels des services d'urgence ont été recrutés par le biais d'affiches et de courriels pour participer à des entretiens individuels volontaires à l'aide d'un script de questions standardisé qui demandait aux participants de parler de leur expérience des évaluations de débriefing INFO. Plus précisément, les participants ont été invités à fournir des informations démographiques, à donner leur avis sur leur participation aux débriefings cliniques INFO, sur l'impact des débriefings sur leur pratique clinique, sur leur niveau de stress et sur leur bien-être. Les entretiens ont été transcrits et analysés à l'aide du logiciel NVivo. RéSULTATS: Quarante-cinq travailleurs de la santé ont répondu aux méthodes de recrutement initiales, quinze n'ont pas répondu à la communication de suivi. Dans l'ensemble, la satisfaction du personnel à l'égard du compte rendu d'INFO a été très bonne. Une analyse thématique qualitative jusqu'à saturation a été utilisée pour analyser les données. Cinq thèmes principaux ont été identifiés : 1. l'effet du débriefing sur la pratique clinique et les soins aux patients. 2. La sécurité psychologique et le travail en équipe. 3. Reconnaissance émotionnelle après des événements critiques. 4. Gestion du stress au travail dans les services d'urgence. 5. Obstacles au débriefing. CONCLUSIONS: Dans cette étude, le débriefing aux urgences a aidé les travailleurs de la santé interprofessionnels à gérer le stress, à améliorer les soins aux patients et le travail d'équipe tout en reconnaissant les émotions. Cette étude a porté spécifiquement sur INFO, mais il existe des similitudes qui rendent nos résultats applicables à d'autres programmes de débriefing d'événements cliniques. Nous pensons que cette étude apporte des preuves supplémentaires en faveur du débriefing dans les domaines des soins cliniques.

Development and implementation of an end-of-shift clinical debriefing method for emergency departments during COVID-19.

BACKGROUND: Multiple guidelines recommend debriefing after clinical events in the emergency department (ED) to improve performance, but their implementation has been limited. We aimed to start a clinical debriefing program to identify opportunities to address teamwork and patient safety during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: We reviewed existing literature on best-practice guidelines to answer key clinical debriefing program design questions. An end-of-shift huddle format for the debriefs allowed multiple cases of suspected or confirmed COVID-19 illness to be discussed in the same session, promoting situational awareness and team learning. A novel ED-based clinical debriefing tool was implemented and titled Debriefing In Situ COVID-19 to Encourage Reflection and Plus-Delta in Healthcare After Shifts End (DISCOVER-PHASE). A facilitator experienced in simulation debriefings would facilitate a short (10-25 min) discussion of the relevant cases by following a scripted series of stages for debriefing. Data on the number of debriefing opportunities, frequency of utilization of debriefing, debriefing location, and professional background of the facilitator were analyzed. RESULTS: During the study period, the ED treated 3386 suspected or confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 11 deaths and 77 ICU admissions. Of the 187 debriefing opportunities in the first 8-week period, 163 (87.2%) were performed. Of the 24 debriefings not performed, 21 (87.5%) of these were during the four first weeks (21/24; 87.5%). Clinical debriefings had a median duration of 10 min (IQR 7-13). They were mostly facilitated by a nurse (85.9%) and mainly performed remotely (89.8%). CONCLUSION: Debriefing with DISCOVER-PHASE during the COVID-19 pandemic were performed often, were relatively brief, and were most often led remotely by a nurse facilitator. Future research should describe the clinical and organizational impact of this DISCOVER-PHASE.